Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what occupations would be considered (a) high-skilled, (b) medium-skilled and (c) low-skilled in the context of The UK's future skills-based immigration system White Paper.

As set out in the White Paper, ‘The UK’s future skills-based immigration system’, we propose to define high, medium and lower skilled occupation by referring to the national Regulated Qualification Framework (RQF) levels. High-skilled roles require skills at degree level or above (RQF 6 and above); medium-skilled require skills between A-Level and Foundation Degree, or equivalent (RQF 3-5) and lower-skilled roles include those at GCSE level or below (below RQF 3).

Occupations falling into each of these skill levels will be set out in codes of practice. The existing codes of practice for our current main immigration work route under Tier 2 can be found at Appendix J of the published immigration rules, available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules/immigration-rules-appendix-j-codes-of-practice-for-skilled-work